The Congress hopes that Khalap’s experience and legacy will help as he takes on the BJP’s Shripad Naik who is hoping to retain the seat for a sixth consecutive term. In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Naik had won North Goa after defeating the Congress’ Girish Chodankar with a margin of over 80,000 votes. He continues to remain popular in the constituency.

Fernandes, the Congress choice for South Goa, has been picked over the party’s sitting MP Francisco Sardinha. Sardinha, 78, is a four-time winning MP from South Goa. After the tickets were announced, Sardinha told the media that he was “disappointed but not hurt”. South Goa saw a close fight in 2019, with Sardinha managing to defeat the BJP’s Narendra Sawaikar with a margin of 9,755 votes.

A senior Congress leader said the decision to replace Sardinha was “based on surveys conducted by the party and alliance partners in the INDIA bloc”. The main criteria is winnability. The age factor may also have worked against Sardinha,” the leader said

Congress leader Yuri Alemao, the Leader of Opposition in the Goa Legislative Assembly said, “The decision has been taken by the party high command. I cannot comment on what was the reason… Sardinha would probably be given a bigger role in the days to come.”

After opting for voluntary retirement from the Navy, Fernandes made his debut in electoral politics in the 2022 Goa Assembly elections and contested from South Goa’s Dabolim constituency. He lost by a narrow margin to the BJP’s Mauvin Godinho. Fernandes will be up against industrialist Pallavi Dempo who is the first woman candidate to have been fielded by the BJP in a parliamentary election in Goa.

South Goa seat has a sizable Christian population and is considered a Congress bastion. The party has won the seat 10 times, while the BJP has won it twice (1999 and 2014). In ten out of the 20 Assembly constituencies in South Goa, the Christian vote varies from 40 per cent to 70 per cent, and an overwhelming majority of that vote traditionally goes to the Congress. Party leaders said with the nomination of another Christian candidate in South Goa, the party will be able to consolidate the voter base.

The INDIA bloc had initially decided the Congress would field the two candiates on the seat. However, due to the delay in the Congress’ announcement, there was discontent among the party cadre and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), its INDIA bloc partner. The AAP had gone ahead and unilaterally declared a candidate for the South Goa seat in February. They later backtracked, saying they would fight together with the Congress.

Amit Patkar, the president of the Goa Pradesh Congress Committee has now said the INDIA bloc would fight together to “throw the BJP out”.

Alemao said he was “confident that the INDIA bloc candidates will be the voice of Goa in the Parliament with the support and blessings of Goans” and would “work tirelessly to protect the identity of Goa.”

BJP Goa President Sadanand Shet Tanavade said it did “not matter who the candidates are”.

“The BJP will win both the Lok Sabha seats with a big margin. By the time, the Congress candidates finish the first round of campaigning, the elections will be over,” he said.